Shown Here:Introduced in House (05/21/1985)

Superfund Expansion and Protection Act of 1985 - Title I: Provisions Relating Primarily to Response and Liability - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) (Superfund) to include among hazardous substances subject to such Act any petroleum released from an underground storage tank.

Includes pollutants and contaminants under Superfund, defining them as any substance which after release into the environment causes disease or abnormalities upon exposure or assimilation, either directly or through the food chain. Excludes petroleum and natural gas except as otherwise indicated under CERCLA.

Redefines "release" to include the abandonment of containers containing hazardous substances or pollutants, or contaminants.

Includes within remedial action the offsite transport and treatment and storage of hazardous substances and associated contaminated materials.

Includes within removal costs the costs of permanent relocation of residents, business debt installments during the evacuation period, and assistance for lost wages.

Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish reportable quantities for all hazardous substances within six months of this Act's enactment.

Requires the Administrator to conduct periodic audits of reported releases and report to the Congress at least annually on such audits. Directs the Administrator to give primary attention to those releases which may present a public health threat. Permits the Administrator to authorize cleanup by the responsible party if the Administrator determines it will be done properly.

Prohibits the Administrator from providing removal or remedial actions for releases or threatened releases which are the product of naturally occurring processes, are in a facility of which such substance forms a structural part, or are the result of ordinary use deterioration in a drinking water system. Permits the Administrator to respond despite such prohibition if a public health or environmental emergency exists and no other authority can respond in a timely and competent fashion.

Requires removal actions undertaken by the Administrator to contribute to any long-term remedial action necessary for a release or potential release. Requires the Administrator to assess the health effects associated with such release.

Exempts response action contractors from liability for any damages caused by a release in the absence of negligence.

Limits the 50 percent State cleanup obligation to those facilities which are both owned and operated by the State. Credits States with expenditures made at National Priorities List (NPL) sites on cost-eligible response actions. Revises other State cost-sharing measures.

Requires the Administrator to select appropriate cost-effective remedial actions in accordance with the National Contingency Plan, (NCP). Requires remedial actions selected to provide permanent solutions when feasible. Requires the Administrator to provide interim measures which protect human and environmental health until a permanent solution becomes feasible. Requires these Interim Category sites on the NPL to be reviewed at five-year intervals for removal to the NPL when a feasible, permanent solution is possible.

Requires a standard of control at least as strict as that provided by any other applicable Federal environmental law such as the Clean Water Act.

Requires onsite disposal to be in compliance with the relevant provisions of the Solid Waste Disposal Act. Requires offsite disposal to be made only at facilities in compliance with such Act. Permits the waiver of such requirements as specified.

Grants EPA employees or contractors the necessary access to facilities and information to determine if the need for a response action exists.

Requires the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to develop toxicological profiles for at least 100 hazardous substances, assessing the current state of knowledge of their deleterious effects. Sets forth a schedule for developing such profiles, funding the process out of Superfund monies.

Prescribes a cleanup schedule for Superfund, requiring an evaluation by January 1, 1987, of sites on the Emergency Response and Remedial Investigation System (ERRIS) list for possible inclusion on the NPL. Sets a schedule for the conduct of remedial investigations and feasibility studies (RIFS) for NPL sites, requiring the commencement of remedial action at a rate of not fewer than 150 facilities per year. Requires completion of remedial action within five years of this Act's enactment, requiring published explanations of noncompletions.

Directs the Administrator to revise the National Contingency Plan (NCP) within 18 months to reflect this Act's amendments.

Authorizes individuals to petition the Administrator for a preliminary assessment of a hazardous substance release.

Includes human food chain damage and contamination of the ambient air as factors in the hazard ranking system.

Eliminates the requirement that the NPL contain at least 400 sites.

Permits a State to designate its highest priority facility on the NPL only once.

Directs the Administrator to revise abatement action provisions to comply with this Act. States that there is no judicial review of abatement action orders other than orders enforcing such orders or recovery of penalties and punitive damages. Prohibits the subsequent storage of a hazardous waste at a solid Waste Disposal Act site if such waste has leaked sufficiently to require an abatement action and a certain density of population has been or may be affected.

Makes certain investigatory and assessment costs recoverable from the responsible party. Exempts from liability for all but negligent actions of government agencies responding to a hazardous substance emergency.

Prohibits the Attorney General from representing any Federal agency other than EPA who may be a defendant in a civil environmental action brought by EPA.

Presumes the validity of federally- or State-run lab tests. Permits apportionment of damages among parties.

Makes liability for abatement actions strict, joint, and several. Permits defendants to bring contribution actions against other, potential defendants. Makes a party to a judically-approved settlement not liable for claims for contribution.

States that cleanup costs incurred in a response action constitute a Federal lien against the property of a responsible party.

Sets forth evidentiary requirements for establishing financial responsibility. Permits direct action against a financial guarantor if the person liable is financially or physically unavailable for redress. Entitles such a guarantor to all rights and defenses available to the liable party. Limits the liability of such guarantor to its financial responsibility to the responsible party.

Authorizes appropriations to the Hazardous Substance Superfund of not more than $2,020,000,000 for each of FY 1986 through 1990. Authorizes $250,000,000 out of general revenues. Prohibits the use of Superfund monies to satisfy claims for natural resources damage. Requires the Inspector General to audit annually the use of Superfund monies. Requires claims for response costs to first be made to the responsible parties or financial guarantor. Sets forth procedures for claim payment.

Establishes a three-year statute of limitations for the initiation of actions for contribution for recovery claims for damages to natural resources. Establishes a six-year statute of limitations for cost recovery actions setting forth special rules for minors and incompetents.

Requires the promulgation of natural resource assessment damage claims regulations within six months of this Act's enactment.

Authorizes nationwide service of process under CERCLA.

Authorizes a State to require contributions to a fund to pay the costs of hazardous substance response actions or damages.

Requires the Administrator of EPA to provide a reasonable opportunity for public comment on any proposed plan for remedial action before it is implemented. Requires the Administrator to publish an explanation of any divergences from such plan or public comments. Authorizes the Administrator to make assistance available to affected individuals to help them evaluate and assess technical information and data.

Authorizes individuals to petition the Administrator of EPA for a health assessment of a site where evidence of human exposure to hazardous substances exists. Requires the Administrator to either initiate a health effects study or publish an explanation of a determined lack of significant risk. Requires the Administrator to provide alternative household water, relocate individuals, or take such measures as may be necessary to eliminate the risk.

Requires Federal agencies to notify buyers or transferees of Federal land where hazardous substances were disposed of or stored for one year or more.

Holds responsible parties strictly, jointly, and severally liable in State court actions for personal damages caused by exposure to any hazardous substance release. Establishes a three-year statute-of-limitations for such actions, setting forth special rules for minor and incompetents.

Title II: Miscellaneous Provisions - Authorizes citizen suits against violators of this Act, including the Administrator and other government officials who have failed to perform nondiscretionary duties. Permits citizen suits against nongovernment officials in the Federal district court in which the violation occurred. Permits citizen suits against any Federal official only in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Empowers such courts to impose civil penalties and to order the performance of required acts. Requires plaintiffs to give notice to the Administrator, the alleged violator, and the State in which the violation occurred before commencing proceedings. Prohibits citizen suits where the Administrator has commenced and is pursuing an enforcement action. Permits the awarding of court costs to the substantially prevailing party. States that the United States may intervene as a matter of right in all citizen suits to which it is not otherwise a party.

Requires the Administrator to commence a study on the adverse effects of drilling fluids, produced waters, and other wastes associated with the production of crude oil or natural gas on human health and the environment within six months of this Act's enactment.

Requires the Department of Transportation to promulgate regulations requiring shippers to notify transporters whenever hazardous substances are offered for transport.

Increases criminal penalties and adds certain civil penalties for violations of this Act, including failure to provide accurate information at specified times.

Requires the Federal Government to provide assurances that it will pay a share of the remedial action and maintenance costs of a cleanup on Indian lands that is otherwise required to be made by a State. Authorizes Indian tribes to recover damages for injury to natural resources from hazardous substance releases, except as specified. Includes Indian tribes on the same basis as States under certain provisions of CERCLA.

Terminates the Post-closure Liability Trust Fund's responsibility to fund the cleanup of already closed sites where hazardous waste was stored in compliance with the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

Title III: Community Right to Know and Emergency Planning - Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act by adding a new title II concerning the communities' right-to-know, emergency planning, and liability. Requires each covered manufacturer, distributor, user, and importer of a sheet for such substance for distribution to local police, fire, and health officials. Requires the fact sheet to include the name, physical properties of, and hazards posed by the substance, including potential routes of human exposure to such substance, symptoms of such exposure, and appropriate emergency and first aid procedures.

Requires status sheets on the same basis as fact sheets, with each status sheet to include the maximum inventory and method of storage of the substance, the quantity of its emission into the environment, and the quantity and method of disposal.

Requires the releasor of a covered hazardous substance in an emergency situation to provide an emergency bulletin to the State and local police and other local officials. Requires the bulletin to identify the name and amount of the substance released and the response actions taken. Requires fact and status sheets and emergency bulletins to be made available for public inspection with public notice of such availability at the facility of the potential releasor. Requires the Administrator to publish a uniform format for fact and status sheets.

Authorizes a State's Governor to identify local officials to receive covered hazardous substance release information, with the Administrator doing so in the absence of the Governor's identification.

Requires the potential releasors to maintain records of information required by this Act. Requires manufacturers or importers to transmit fact sheets to covered distributors or users upon shipping of a covered hazardous substance.

Provides protection for trade secrets while continuing to make necessary information available to the appropriate persons. Excludes listed or possible carcinogens from such protection. Sets forth application and substantiation procedures for trade secret claims. Permits affected citizens or government officials to compel disclosure of nonsubstantiated trade secrets through the Federal courts.

Authorizes the Administrator to grant exemptions from the basic notification requirements of this Act through specified procedures open to the public based upon a cost-benefits analysis where there is no reasonable likelihood of harm.

Directs each covered major manufacturer to develop within two years of the enactment of this Act a comprehensive evacuation and emergency response plan which addresses the health and safety issues applicable to such manufacturer's particular situation. Requires the plan to include designations of the appropriate government officials to be notified, mitigation measures, evacuation routes, notification plans, and evaluation of community support services.

Authorizes each Governor to designate emergency response districts within 18 months of the enactment of this Act or the Administrator will do so. Permits each Governor to appoint an Emergency Response Committee per district or the Administrator will be treated as such Committee. Requires such Committees to review the manufacturers' plans, revising them where necessary.

Directs the Administrator within 18 months of the enactment of this Act to develop uniform national mandatory labeling requirements for pipes, storage tanks, or containers not otherwise required to be labeled which could reasonably be presumed to release a covered hazardous substance. Requires the label to indicate the appropriate response to a release.

Directs the Administrator to designate covered major manufacturers for emergency response purposes within one year of the enactment of this Act. Limits the designation to those whose substances would pose an imminent and substantial danger to health and the environment if released in significant quantities. Includes all persons covered under this Act in lieu of such designations. Includes Federal departments as potentially covered major manufacturers. Exempts those whose emergency activities are sufficiently covered under other Federal or State law.

Sets forth categories of substances to be considered covered hazardous substances and procedures for adding additional substances. Directs the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to compile and update a digest of all such substances. Exempts certain substances for this Act's purposes, based upon the form, amount, and other regulation of such substances.

Permits States to adopt more stringent right-to-know standards in the workplace context and emergency response requirements. Permits State and local governments to impose fees upon potential releasors to cover administrative costs.

Title IV: Internal Revenue Code Provisions - Imposes taxes of $1,077,000,000 for each of FY 1986 through 1990 for deposit in the Hazardous Substance Response Trust Fund.